The disclosed aspects relate generally to communications between and/or within devices and specifically to methods and systems for extending the capability of a near field communication (NFC) device to discover Tag Talks First (TTF) devices.
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful personal computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and paging devices that are each small, lightweight, and can be easily carried by users. More specifically, the portable wireless telephones, for example, further include cellular telephones that communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Many such cellular telephones are being manufactured with relatively large increases in computing capabilities, and as such, are becoming tantamount to small personal computers and hand-held PDAs. Further, such devices are being manufactured to enable communications using a variety of frequencies and applicable coverage areas, such as cellular communications, wireless local area network (WLAN) communications, NFC, etc.
Currently, NFC Forum specifications only define mechanisms to communicate with remote NFC devices (e.g., tags) that wait for a command before communicating with a polling NFC-enabled device. Additionally, there is a class of NFC-enabled devices called “Tag Talks First” (TTF) devices. A TTF device, once exposed to a suitable radio frequency (RF) field, starts to transmit data without waiting for a command from the device that has created the RF field. As such, where a polling NFC-enabled device is configured to use current NFC Forum specifications, the presence of a TTF device in an operating volume would either be recognized as interference or not recognized at all.
Thus, improved apparatus and methods for enabling a NFC-enabled device to discover and/or communicate with a TTF device are desired.